Innovation

Graduating high school students across the nation are faced with deciding whether to continue their education or enter the workforce. Many seek higher education in order to improve career opportunities and gain economic prosperity and social mobility (Blackwell & Pinder, 2014). The College Board claims that the average annual income for individuals who have a baccalaureate degree is $53,976. The unemployment rate among these graduates is 4.7 percent, which is lower than the U.S. unemployment rate of 6.7 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). While these statistics look promising, the...

Barriers to Academic Success: A Qualitative Study of African American and Latino Male Students

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June 2016

Students of color, males in particular, face significant challenges in higher education. African American male students, on average, are less successful than other racial/ethnic groups, including African American women. Compared to Asian/Pacific Islander or White/Non-Hispanic students, they are less likely to succeed in both developmental and college-level coursework and are more likely to drop out. Latino students are the least likely of all racial/ethnic groups to transfer. African American students and Latino males have the lowest persistence rates (Elgin Community College, 2010). Students...

An Innovation That Could Transform the Community College World

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September 2022

By accelerating changes already underway in the workforce and adding new options for how we learn, work, and live, the COVID-19 pandemic has renewed attention on a classic dilemma in education: Is the purpose of education to prepare students to make a good living or to live a good life? There are many unresolved educational issues, but this thorny one has cast a long shadow ever since humans struggled to make sense of the world. Perhaps this quandary began 17,000 years ago around a campfire at the mouth of Lascaux cave near what is today the village of Montignac in the Dordogne Valley of...

What’s Next for Community Colleges? Leadership After COVID-19

Tags: Organizational Culture

September 2022

In 2008, during a televised event, then White House Chief of Staff Rham Emanuel said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before” (Emanuel, 2008, 0:04). Many articles have been written about the crises the U.S. postsecondary education ecosystem faces regarding relevance, funding, and innovation, all of which demand swift action (Alexander, 2020; Cristensen & Eyring, 2011; Crow & Dabars, 2015; Grawe, 2018; McGee, 2015, Phelan, 2014). However, for many colleges, change has not come...

Connect for Success: Matching Teaching and Learning Styles

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April 2012

Educational institutions feel the imperative to improve retention and graduation rates, and political and corporate interests have amplified the focus on institutional success. The general consensus among policy-makers holds that an indicator of institutional effectiveness is student learning (Erisman, 2009). Fifty-five percent of the nation's 25- to 35-year olds will be degree holders by the year 2025. It is an ambitious challenge and a necessary aspiration to elevate America's status as a world leader in educational attainment among its citizenry. And it is a compelling goal as the global...

Putting Ohio to Work Through Collaborations With Employers, Service Providers, and Training Providers

Tags: Corporate Training, Partnerships, Workforce Preparation

September 2022

Employers across the U.S. are struggling to find the talent they need to thrive, while community colleges and other training providers are seeking innovative ways to recruit and educate students to meet this demand. Ohio To Work (OTW) was formed in 2021 to give Ohio job seekers access to resources and opportunities to land good jobs while filling the talent pipeline. The initiative is a partnership among employers, service providers, and training providers who are part of a network that helps workers to acquire the support they need. The initiative began in Cleveland and expanded to the...